RSIC after 14 years: where do we go from here. [Brief history and list of suggested future activities]

During the fourteen years since the Radiation Shielding Information Center (RSIC) started operations, many changes have taken place in the nuclear industry, both government and commercial, and in shielding technology. Military and space applications of radiation transport technology have waxed and waned, but computing applications and the need for elaborate computer codes and nuclear data for the commercial nuclear industry have increased manyfold. The rationale for RSIC operations has been the recognition of the need for government to promote the exchange and transfer of shielding technology to advance the state of the art. With the present need to meet energy demands through nuclear power, and yet to minimize radiation exposure to operating personnel and the public, there is great need to increase radiation analysis capabilities among the utilities and other segments of the industry. Yet, because of government cost-recovery restrictions and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) precedents, there is a widening gap between what is being done and what is needed. During 1975, RSIC had an Electric Power Research Institute contract to integrate the shielding and technology information exchange of the nuclear power industry with that of the government and its contractors. Included in work performed by RSIC on behalfmore » of EPRI was a survey of the radiation protection, radiation transport, and shielding information needs of the nuclear power industry. Such needs include computing technology, nuclear data, special information needs, such as fission product and ''crud'' transport, and expansion more generally into radiation protection areas such as environmental radiological analysis.« less